Played mostly on Arispotle, but on Leanon towards the end, and finally on Aniro after Leanon went down, from May '05 to the day before Aniro went down in February '08. I don't remember any periods of significant lag except for the aforementioned two-week thing in October '07. Either you were unlucky enough to stumble into a temporary server issue that would've been remedied within the day, or there was an issue somewhere between you and the server, or my memory fails.

I live on the west coast of North America, so sheer distance between NA players and the servers, which were first in France under Nevrax then in Germany under Gameforge, can't be an absolute issue.

It was lagged to hell for the whole 7 days of the free trial when I tried it first in 06. Might have been restricted to that particular zone though. It was the old Zorai noob zone.

In Australia here, but the long distance from everything has never been an issue with mmos and performance. The closest I've ever come to experiencing the kind of lag I saw that week in Ryzom was in CoH just after they introduced a new zone. For about a month there were bad lag problems caused by memory leak for everyone, just in that zone.

But whatever the lag problem was in 06, I never saw it again, either in Silan or on the mainland.

Weird.

Originally posted by Vortigon

I truly loved this game until I left the noobie area and found it completely lacking in content of any kind.

There's sandbox and sandbox, and to go from having lots to do to absolutely nothing to do I think that put alot of people off staying longer and making enough social connections to make it worthwhile.

That was the downfall of this game, such a shame because with a bit more content this game would rule all.

 

QFT !  I have exprienced the same thing.  Newbie area was AWESOME, but then after that i felt i've been cheated, it's was not the same game at all.   Make the whole game like the starting area or at least add content after the newbie island.

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Originally posted by Aguitha

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Originally posted by Vortigon

I truly loved this game until I left the noobie area and found it completely lacking in content of any kind.
There's sandbox and sandbox, and to go from having lots to do to absolutely nothing to do I think that put alot of people off staying longer and making enough social connections to make it worthwhile.
That was the downfall of this game, such a shame because with a bit more content this game would rule all.

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QFT ! I have exprienced the same thing. Newbie area was AWESOME, but then after that i felt i've been cheated, it's was not the same game at all. Make the whole game like the starting area or at least add content after the newbie island.

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Originally posted by katriell

 

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Originally posted by Aguitha

QFT ! I have exprienced the same thing. Newbie area was AWESOME, but then after that i felt i've been cheated, it's was not the same game at all. Make the whole game like the starting area or at least add content after the newbie island.

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The starting area should be made like the rest of the game, not the other way around.

 

I'm gonna split the difference on this one.

I had exactly the same experience as Aguitha, of really enjoying the newbie island, then hitting the mainland and feeling... completely lost. I chose Zora as my starting point and the zone was empty of players, there were no quests to guide me, no gear to buy at the vendors etc. etc. etc.

Once I joined a guild (who were able to provide a little guidance) I was fine, and ended up loving the mainland more than the newbie island. But there is such an enormous difference between the newbie island and the mainland that I agree it's a problem that probably contributed to its past lack of success.

But I don't think that either the newbie island or the mainland needs to change. I think there just needs to be a bridge  - even just a warning from the NPCs who send you to the mainland to the effect:

Here in the Ruins of Silan you have been guided with missions that helped you develop the basic skills and knowledge to survive on the mainland. Missions on the mainland take a different form. Completing missions will earn you favour with particular factions but are not necessary to advance your skills or earn experience points.

Experience points are earned through experience. You'll improve combat, crafting and harvesting skills by using them. You'll most often find it easier to do so by teaming up with other players.

You should also give thought to joining a guild. They can help you learn how to survive on the mainland and probably assist you with acquiring new and better equipment.

Be warned that travelling between the different lands of Ryzom is dangerous and most likely impossible for young homins like yourself. But older, more experienced homins can help you make those journeys and acquire teleport points which will then allow you to travel to those points instantly. When planning such treks, older homins usually advertise the fact in zone chat channels. You should listen for these and join treks as soon as you can, as they will both open up new lands for you to experience and help you to meet other homins.

Or something like that. Cos I can understand Aguitha's feeling cheated. Silan was one game, the mainland quite another. And I can understand Katriell's not wanting to change the mainland, cos it's the better game. But Silan is a good introduction to new players, and the quests are a good introduction to the game (apart from the log bugs).

I think they should both be left alone (in this respect) and all that's needed is a little bit of warning/explanation.

I thought Silan was a good intro to the game. It showed new players what they could do and learn. I also like how the mainland is different. It isn't a quest grind like so many other games. Ryzom is a sandbox game, you explore, hunt, craft, pvp, gather resources. I really can't wait to return to Atys.